The New World Order Read online

  Stefan and Albena went to the coffee shop, joining Penko who was setting up the solid-state drives and a new, fast gaming PC.

  Mateo got a call from Lance Evans, telling him about the electrical system in Clarence’s apartment. Mateo didn’t seem to care, but after a brief argument Lance got his attention, telling him that the damage was done by a very advanced device. He also mentioned the shock Clarence got from trying to pick Taylor’s lock. He asked Mateo to give him addresses of other buildings where surveillance was taking place, so he could see if the resistance was onto their plans. Mateo agreed.

  Jacob asked Jaak if he could invite Sunshine to a meeting of the Sons of Liberty, and said he was going to a meeting of her group. Jaak said okay, as long as they could do a background check beforehand. Jacob realized he didn’t know her last name yet, and promised to get it. He attended Sunshine’s meeting later, led by Henry. They discussed the Boston City Council meeting, where they were moving forward with work proximity regulations and discussing a social scoring system. The discussion got to the harbor attacks, Henry confessing that he’d been hearing the same things as Jacob was telling them. Sunshine and Todd made plans to attend the next meeting of the Sons of Liberty.

  Albena’s new PC was crunching through the email data. Penko and Vasil came into the room as the last keyword search finished. Albena did a sort of the message by number of hits, and opened the first one. She was shocked by the contents, as were Penko and Vasil. Vasil contacted Jared and they did a conference call, Vasil telling him about the message, which had data about the New York Harbor attack, including the berth number in Bayonne. As they were talking, Albena read another email, talking about plans to murder Mayor Fine and Chief Harvey in the confusion of the attack. Jared told Vasil and the others to go to the safe house right away, and left the call to contact the other team members, and to warn Mayor Fine and Chief Harvey. Stefan told Albena he was going to the harbor to try to stop the attack, Albena trying to stop him as he left, but to no avail. She broke down.

  Mayor Fine was in his office, and took a call from Jared Carlson, who told him of the upcoming bomb attack and plan for his murder. Chief Harvey came in while the conversation was going, Mayor Fine bringing him up to speed. Jared told them about the attacks coming in the other locations, then ended the call to contact the rest of his associates. Mayor Fine ordered his employees to the bunker underneath City Hall. Chief Harvey helped him move the weapons from the armory to the bunker. Kate and Julio arrived in time to ride the elevator down to the bunker with the Mayor and the Chief.

  Taylor and Laleh got the word, leaving work for the Safe House, calling Eve, who was also on the way.

  Stefan met Julie at the wharf closest to the union hall, getting into a Zodiac boat with Julie’s friend Roberto. They took off across the bay to Bayonne with weapons, ready to do battle. They made it across and found the boat, a rusty old freighter. A Harbor Patrol vehicle was pulling up as they arrived. Stefan showed the Harbor Patrolman the email about the attack. He didn’t believe it, but agreed to go onboard with them. They found the ship deserted, Julie leading them to the cargo hold. They found the nuclear device in the middle, right under the loading port. The timer read just seconds to go. It detonated, Stefan and the others not even feeling it.

  Taylor and Laleh were still on the street when the bomb went off, the blinding flash behind them, glass breaking all around, cars running off the road, people going crazy. They broke into a run, getting to the safe house, going down the stairs to the bunker. Cary and Eve greeted them, taking them inside.

  Mayor Fine and his team were inside the City Hall bunker, the blast rocking the ground under them, lights going out, emergency lights going on after a moment. After the initial horrified panic, Mayor Fine took charge, and they got their systems up and running thanks to the generator system in the bunker. Radiation readings above the bunker were off the charts, everybody dead for many blocks around them. Everything south of 14th Street was destroyed. They got calls from surviving police stations, Chief Harvey answering and giving instructions. While they were talking to Precinct 17, armed UN Peacekeepers arrived, saying they were authorized to take over. Chief Harvey said no way. When the NYPD officers resisted, the UN Peacekeepers killed them with automatic weapons. Chief Harvey contacted the other precincts, warning them to shoot at the UN if they showed up.

  Penko, Vasil, and Albena were in the subway when the bomb went off, stopping the trains. Vasil used his satellite phone to call Jared, who told them to sit tight for a couple hours, and then walk out.

  Mateo was in Geneva, watching TV coverage, sipping Champagne. Charles Livingston called him, letting him know that somebody warned the NYPD, and they were fighting the UN takeover. After that call, Mateo called Saladin to check his progress. Saladin said he was in Mexico with his forces, almost at the US border.

  Pat arrived at John and Linda’s house, telling them about the bomb attacks, Craig getting there a moment later, telling them about the other cities hit with nukes. The power went off. John got a battery-operated radio from the garage, turning it on, hearing about the invasion of UN forces in New York. The radio station went off the air, but was back a few minutes later on generator power.

  A crowd gathered at the Bow Street Pub in Boston to watch coverage of the attacks, and to be with other people. News of the Paris attack came over the TVs in the bar. A moment later the head of the Islamic Caliphate was on TV, causing an uproar.

  After sitting in the subway for a couple hours, Vasil, Penko, and Albena left the car, walking out through the tunnels, heading for the safe house. Vasil used the satellite phone to call Cary, who responded, telling them the radiation levels were low enough for them to walk out. He warned of street battles between the NYPD and the UN. They got to the 66th Street station, climbing the stairs to the street, then getting on Amsterdam Avenue, which was choked with cars and people. The sound of gunfire drifted through the streets, automatic and semi-auto fire. They were finally getting close to the safe house, so Vasil called Cary again. He told them there was trouble brewing, and a UN checkpoint had been setup between them and the destination. Jace, the limo driver and commando came on the call and said they were going to attack the UN checkpoint, since the NYPD had to withdraw. He told Vasil to wait a block ahead of the checkpoint until they finished off the UN Peacekeepers. The battle erupted, sending some of the UN Peacekeepers running in their direction, Albena hitting two of them with her pistol, Vasil and Penko joining in. Albena ran out and picked up a machine gun one of the dead Peacekeepers dropped, using it to kill the last two Peacekeepers, who were hiding behind some cars. Then Jace and his men got there, taking them towards the safe house, running into a group of twenty UN Peacekeepers, ready to fight. Cars flew out of an alley, plowing into the Peacekeepers, killing several, as citizens threw Molotov Cocktails at them, Albena and the others opening fire with their machine guns, killing the rest of the Peacekeepers…

  { 1 }

  Radiation

  A lbena rushed to the bodies of the dead UN Peacekeepers, joined by Jace, Penko, Vasil, and the citizens who’d driven their cars into the enemy.

  “Take their machine guns,” Albena shouted. “Ammo too.”

  “We’ve got plenty in the bunker,” Jace said quietly. “Let’s give some of these to the citizens.”

  An old man heard, walking over. “I’m Douglas,” he said, shaking hands with Jace and the others. “How organized are you guys? We could use some allies.”

  “We’re just getting started,” Jace said, “but allies would be good. You guys take most of these machine guns. We’ve got weapons already.”

  “Thank you kindly,” Douglas said, motioning for his comrades to pick up the weapons. “Heard there’s another checkpoint set up at Broadway and 83rd Street. It’s not far. Maybe we’ll go ruin their evening.”

  “Be careful,” Vasil said. “Don’t get killed right away. We’ll gather intel so we can coordinate attacks. What’s your phone number?”


  Douglas chuckled. “Phones are out, but I’ll give it to you. Won’t be down for long, I suspect.” He read off the number, Vasil putting it into his phone.

  “We’d better get down in that bunker,” Albena said. “I want to hack into the MVS. It’ll help us to pinpoint targets.”

  “What’s the MVS?” Douglas asked.

  “Municipal Video System,” Penko said. “We’d better get going.”

  “See you soon,” Douglas said, his men taking off with their new machine guns and ammo.

  “Let’s move, before somebody else shows up,” Jace shouted. They ran towards 89th Street, entering the building and taking the stairs to the bunker, Cary waiting for them by the open vault door. They slipped through, the vault closing behind them.

  “Whoa, check out this place,” Albena said, looking around the big staging room, with doors on both sides and a big hallway going to the right, which they entered. “Generators, thank God. You got PCs? Might have screwed up my laptop. Fell on my backpack out there while I was fighting.”

  “We’ve got a command center with everything you’ll need,” Cary said. “The generators are online, and they’re state-of-the-art.”

  “Heard from Jared?” Vasil asked.

  “A few minutes ago,” Cary said. “He’s trying to cover a lot of bases, so I don’t want to bug him. We’re very well set up here.”

  “What if the enemy finds this place?” Albena asked as they rounded a corner in the hallway.

  “We control the cameras around this space,” Cary said. “They’ll figure it out if they study it close enough. We’ve installed wiring, which will be easy to undo. We’ll take that off before things settle down, or they’ll know we did it.”

  “Let me look into it,” Albena said. “I’m good at that stuff, and I know that system well. Do we have access to the feed?”

  “Real time feeds, yes. We haven’t been able to hack into the history.”

  Penko shot a grin to Albena. Cary noticed.

  “You’ve already figured that out,” Cary said.

  “I can get in and download files,” Albena said, “but I’m still working to crack the facial recognition system. That’s the biggest danger. The trick will be learning how to use it ourselves, while messing with the enemy’s ability to use it.”

  They turned right into a large room, with two rows of long tables, PCs set up on both, one of the walls covered with twenty flat-screen monitors, each cycling through a set of cameras, labels listing the camera locations.

  “Nothing below about 16th Street,” Penko said, looking at the screens. “My God. All those people.”

  “Manhattan didn’t take it as bad as parts of Jersey and Brooklyn,” Hector said, turning from his PC. “Good to see you again.”

  Taylor, Eve, and Laleh came into the room.

  “Thank God, you made it,” Eve said, eyeing Albena. “Where’d you get the machine gun?”

  Albena smiled, setting the gun down next to a PC. “We took them off UN Peacekeepers that we killed out there.”

  “Where’s Stefan?” Taylor asked.

  Albena’s lower lip trembled, tears filling her eyes, Taylor looking down.

  “He sacrificed himself,” Penko said softly. “He was in the harbor trying to stop the attack, we think. There’s a slim chance he’s alive someplace.”

  “No there isn’t,” Albena said. “Look at the displays up there. Anywhere he would’ve been is destroyed. I hope he was right next to the bomb. At least it would’ve been quick.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Taylor said.

  “Thank you,” Albena replied, pulling herself together. “Let’s see if my laptop is intact. I’d like to transfer files to one of these machines if I can.” She took off her backpack, unzipping it, finding the wireless mouse crushed. “Uh oh, bad sign.”

  “How much will it set you back?” Vasil asked.

  “Depends on how good our internet connectivity is,” she replied, pulling out the laptop. “It doesn’t look damaged.” She opened it, pushing the power button.

  “We’ve got satellite internet,” Cary said. “It’s not as fast as the fiber, so we’ll switch back to that when it comes back up.”

  “If it comes back up,” Laleh said.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Jace said. “The folks who did the attack need it back up. They still have to run things.”

  “I hope I get to kill lots of those creeps myself,” Albena said, watching her laptop as it started up. “The laptop is fine. Can you give me the network info?”

  Cary nodded, sitting next to her as she logged on.

  ***

  “How many precincts did we lose?” Mayor Fine asked, looking over Chief Harvey’s shoulder at his computer screen.

  “Only three, believe it or not,” he said, “and by the way, the citizens have been helping. That’s why we didn’t lose more. Several groups of citizens have wasted UN Peacekeepers and gathered up their machine guns.”

  “Cliff Bates wouldn’t approve,” Julio quipped, shaking his head. “May he rot in hell.”

  “I doubt he’s dead,” Kate said. “We lost a lot of people, though. The world will never be the same.”

  Jean looked up from her desk. “Mayor Fine, you’ve got a call from Governor Romano. Would you like to take it in the private office?”

  “Yes, thanks,” he said, walking to a door behind Jean, going in and sitting down, punching a button on the speaker phone.

  “Mayor Fine?”

  “Yes sir. Anything bad happen in Albany?”

  “Not so far. The power is out, of course, but it’s out almost everywhere between Georgia and Rhode Island.”

  “I’m glad your safe, anyway. We’re still in the City Hall bunker. Radiation levels above us are lethal, so we’ll be staying here for a while.”

  “Yes, we’re working plans for a rescue, but the experts want to wait for a week or two. Do you have supplies for that?”

  “We could stay down here for a few months,” Mayor Fine said. “Glad we did these upgrades. I was against spending the money at the time.”

  “I remember. Funny how things change.”

  “Yes,” Mayor Fine said. “Any estimates on people killed yet?”

  “Those numbers are still in work, but it’s gonna be bad. Very bad. I’m concerned about something.”

  “What’s that?” Mayor Fine asked.

  “I’m hearing reports of vigilantes attacking UN Peacekeepers in Manhattan. Have you heard anything about that?”

  “Yes,” Mayor Fine said, pausing for a moment. “It’s good that we’re getting the help. The UN overran three NYPD precincts, killing our officers when they resisted.”

  “I authorized the UN to come in and help. I’d appreciate it if you’d order the NYPD to cooperate.”

  Mayor Fine was silent for a moment. “You didn’t hear me before, perhaps. They’ve been killing our officers.”

  “I heard you. Misunderstandings happen during tragedies such as the one we’ve just gone through. All will be forgiven.”

  “Who will be forgiven?” Mayor Fine asked, his blood pressure rising.

  “The NYPD. They’ll work side by side with the UN to bring control back to the city. We need to arrest the vigilantes right away. You understand.”

  “You don’t have the authority to bring a foreign power in for law enforcement, and I won’t allow it here.”

  There was silence on the line for a moment. “I can have you removed, Mayor Fine.”

  “No, I was elected, and you have no such power. I’ve got intel that the UN was complicit with the bombings, and I’ll go public if needed.”

  “That’s offensive.”

  “Yes, it’s offensive that the UN did that, and it’s also offensive that you’re allowing them to take over. There were government insiders involved in these attacks. We already have some evidence of that, and we’ll continue to gather more. Do I make myself clear?”

  “You’re signing your own death warrant.”

&n
bsp; Mayor Fine chuckled. “Shit, you were in on it. I’ll see you hang for treason, Governor Romano. Have a nice day.” He slammed the button on the speaker unit, cutting off the call. Jean knocked on the door.

  “Yeah,” Mayor Fine said, getting up.

  She cracked the door. “Something wrong?”

  He came out, walking to the others. “Gather around.”

  “Uh oh, what now?” Julio asked.

  “I just had a chat with Governor Romano.”

  “About what?” Kate asked. Murmurs broke out, the workers looking scared.

  “He authorized the UN Peacekeepers to come in,” Mayor Fine said. “He asked me to order the NYPD to cooperate with them, and he wants us to arrest the citizens who have been fighting back alongside the police.”

  “You aren’t gonna do that, I hope,” Chief Harvey asked.

  “Of course not. I told him I wouldn’t allow a foreign power to take over law enforcement in New York City. He said I was signing my death warrant.”

  “The rumors are true,” Julio said, looking alarmed. “Our own government was complicit in these attacks.”

  The Mayor nodded. “Jean, can I use the secure phone system to call non-governmental numbers?”

  “I don’t know, sir. We can try. Who do you want to call?”

  “Jared Carlson, in the back room. You still have his number?”

  “Yes, it got written into the database after he called,” she said.

  Mayor Fine nodded. “Try to get him. Chief, come with me, I want you on the call. You too, Julio and Kate.”

  “Yes sir,” Chief Harvey said. They squeezed into the small room.

  “Got him,” Jean called from outside.

  Mayor Fine punched the speaker button. “Mr. Carlson?”

  “Jared,” he said. “Glad you survived. What can I do for you?”